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Enix America producer: "We localized [DQ6]. It was ready to be released."

A

Aeana

Member
A pretty interesting interview with the ex-producer at Enix America, Robert Jerauld, before its closure in the 90s.

One of the more interesting tidbits in here:

Dragon Warrior seemed to perform well enough on the NES. What was the reasoning behind not localizing Dragon Quest V?

We localized it. It was ready to be released.

Just to clarify – which one, Dragon Quest V or VI? There’s an old Enix newsletter scan floating around that mentions that DQV was off the table for technical reasons, so you were looking at DQVI instead for localization as Dragon Warrior 5.

Yep, likely it was DQ 6 that was fully translated and ready to go as DW 5. If I remember correctly, it would have been too expensive to bring DQ5 over and thus Enix Japan didn’t give permission for localization.

...

Dragon Warrior V simply wasn’t finished by the time Enix America had closed. Had nothing to do with the visual quality and everything to do with Enix America not being around to release. As I mentioned, we had the game basically finished and ready to go but we didn’t have the time to cert the title and finish testing. I’ve heard the various rumors that NOA was looking for polygon based games at the time but that was never something I experienced or heard while working at Enix. NOA wanted the game but we weren’t around to release it.
Click to expand...

There's lots more at the link.
Source: http://gaming.moe/?p=331

Such a shame that they weren't able to get it out. The lack of a Dragon Quest game in the SNES era most likely permanently affected the franchise's future in the North American market.
 
R

randomkid

Member
That bit about Actraiser 2 is pretty sad too!

DQ6 was one of the first import games I ever played at my bud's place back in the day, definitely agree that the trajectory of DQ in the USA woulda been different if it had made it out here.
 
R

Ramza

Banned
I pushed Enix away from retaining the sim part of ActRaiser and toward a more challenging action title. I made that decision because I believed I knew what the consumer wanted. The release of that game taught me quite a bit about the need to really listen to consumers. You can’t get caught up in making games for yourself believing that you speak for the consumer. You have to take the time to really hear what people have to say, read all the feedback, read all the comments, truly understand what people seek in their experiences. I removed the soul from ActRaiser and that was a really tough lesson to learn, but it’s one that has really helped me along the way.
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At least I know who to blame now for ActRaiser 2.
 
TheMoon

TheMoon

Member
Bummer the piece doesn't mention Terranigma's at all, especially since he's so fond of the other Quintet games.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Aeana said:
Such a shame that they weren't able to get it out. The lack of a Dragon Quest game in the SNES era most likely permanently affected the franchise's future in the North American market.
Click to expand...

To this day I've never really been a DQ head... but if it were released in that golden era of my childhood (and of jRPGs in general), it might have gone differently.
 
E

Eusis

Member
Aeana said:
Such a shame that they weren't able to get it out. The lack of a Dragon Quest game in the SNES era most likely permanently affected the franchise's future in the North American market.
Click to expand...
Yeah, had FF been absent in the SNES period I imagine FFVII might have had more trouble coming over, though I imagine you don't reach several million sales from several thousand prior sales anyway.

It's frustrating how the series is kind of perpetually cursed though, and I do think had DQV come over then I'd probably have really gotten into it, I didn't exactly get into FF1 like I did FFIV afterall.
 
V

Vincent Grayson

Member
And here we are in 2014 without any sign of DQ7 3DS ever coming out in English.

This is my second favorite series (behind FF), and it just doesn't get any respect in English.
 
A

Aeana

Member
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One of the most beautiful games on SNES, in my opinion, and it stands right up there with its peers. I feel like it would've done pretty well for an RPG on SNES.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Eusis said:
Yeah, had FF been absent in the SNES period I imagine FFVII might have had more trouble coming over, though I imagine you don't reach several million sales from several thousand prior sales anyway.
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I don't think in any way it would have had trouble coming over. Sony was really keen to push it over here... it was one of their megaton exclusives and they saw fit to localize it themsleves. The fact that there were even predecessor games that did or did not exist in certain territories didn't even matter at that point.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Sorry for double post :(

Aeana said:
One of the most beautiful games on SNES, in my opinion, and it stands right up there with its peers. I feel like it would've done pretty well for an RPG on SNES.
Click to expand...

I look at those screens and think "that looks right".

When my English-speaking contact points with a series are on NES, PS1, or DS, it just is not the same feeling as if I had been exposed to it in the colorful sprite era of SNES.
 
N

NolbertoS

Member
I still have the Game pro magazine from the 80's showing Dragon Warrior V coming soon to the SNES. Didn't know DQVI was considered too. Would've been an awesome JRPG generation with DQ on the SNES. Enix has broken my heart too many times though. Also still have rhe DQIV PS1 coming soon too in the back of rhe DQVII PS1 booklet. They should stop with making promises nowadays localizing out West.
 
S

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
A crying shame. Aeana's right - that decision probably caused the ripple effect when we see the popularity of the series today and why DQ7 won't be localized anytime soon on 3DS.
 
K

kswiston

Member
BocoDragon said:
I don't think in any way it would have had trouble coming over. Sony was really keen to push it over here... it was one of their megaton exclusives and they saw fit to localize it themsleves. The fact that there were even predecessor games that did or did not exist in certain territories didn't even matter at that point.
Click to expand...

You only have to look at Europe to know that this is true. I'm pretty sure FFIV and VI never came out in PAL land. FF7 shipped 9.8M copies on the PS1, of which about 4M were in Japan and a little over 3M were in the US. Even when you account for the rest of NA and Asia, PAL copies probably numbered around 2M.

Aeana said:
Enix. They reformed Enix America in 1999 and existed up until the merger.
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I thought that I remembered the Enix logo on DW7, Star Ocean 2, Valkyrie Profile, etc, so I was a bit confused.
 
H

HellBlazer

Member
Oh what the fuck... That's a terrible shame. My teenage self would have loved this. Seems like a waste of resources too, if you already went through the trouble of localizing it.
 
A

Aeana

Member
It's interesting that this same person is also responsible for The 7th Saga being what it is, or at least partially.

The 7th Saga – You wouldn’t believe how long I spent creating the names for the places in this game! I also helped design most of the puzzles to really give players in the US a challenge. I’d grown tired of the persistent notion that American gamers weren’t as proficient at solving challenging games and thus developers in Japan “dumbed down” their games for the US. I simply chose not to believe that and worked to deliver an experience that would challenge the best gamers, regardless of nationality.
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The 7th Saga is dramatically more difficult in stupid ways than the Japanese version. Very sad that it ended up that way, since I think people may have responded a bit better to the game if they got the version that Japan got.
 
TheSadRanger

TheSadRanger

Banned
Aeana said:
It's interesting that this same person is also responsible for The 7th Saga being what it is, or at least partially.



The 7th Saga is dramatically more difficult in stupid ways than the Japanese version. Very sad that it ended up that way, since I think people may have responded a bit better to the game if they got the version that Japan got.
Click to expand...

7th Saga was actually the first JRPG I ever played. I rented it on a spur of a moment. Good lord I had no idea what I was getting into. I still have bad memories about it.
 
H

Hours Left

Member
Ugh, that's awful. When will this series catch a break in the US? Even when it does well it's still apparently never enough. :/
 
TheSadRanger

TheSadRanger

Banned
Hours Left said:
Ugh, that's awful. When will this series catch a break in the US? Even when it does well it's still apparently never enough. :/
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I'm still thankful that we at least got a damn good localization of DQ8 in NA considering how the series as a whole has been handled here.
 
M

Mutanthands

Member
Ramza said:
At least I know who to blame now for ActRaiser 2.
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Actraiser was one of the first games I played for the SNES. What a classic. I was so looking forward to the sequel, buying it as soon as it was out.

And then I start playing this sluggish...thing with dour music and nightmare-level difficulty. Disappointment of the generation.
 
J

Just take it with you.

Member
Aeana said:
Such a shame that they weren't able to get it out. The lack of a Dragon Quest game in the SNES era most likely permanently affected the franchise's future in the North American market.
Click to expand...

I can believe it. The U.S. went almost a decade between DWIV and DWVII, particularly at a time when JRPGs really came into their own during the SNES and PSX eras. If only DQ could have had more of that mindshare.
 
L

L Thammy

Member
Apologize for off topic, but small Enix question: what was their stake on the Square merger? I know that Spirits Within was a huge blow to Square, but wasn't Enix still going strong at the time?

Synless said:
What were the technical reasons for V not being released?
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I'm surprised to by that. Unless it's code for the game being primitive - I've read that there was a certain stink that the game didn't make enough use of the SNES' graphical capabilities.
 
M

Man God

Non-Canon Member
Aeana said:
A pretty interesting interview with the ex-producer at Enix America, Robert Jerauld, before its closure in the 90s.

One of the more interesting tidbits in here:



There's lots more at the link.
Source: http://gaming.moe/?p=331

Such a shame that they weren't able to get it out. The lack of a Dragon Quest game in the SNES era most likely permanently affected the franchise's future in the North American market.
Click to expand...

They talked about VI a lot in Nintendo Power. Same with Tactics Ogre. I think both were almost completed before they closed.
 
A

Aeana

Member
L Thammy said:
Apologize for off topic, but small Enix question: what was their stake on the Square merger? I know that Spirits Within was a huge blow to Square, but wasn't Enix still going strong at the time?
Click to expand...

Enix wanted to merge with Square because of their low success in western markets, and the fact that they had little control over the IPs they published. So, out of the merger, they got a more reliable revenue and a foothold in the west. And of course, Square got access to Enix's money.
 
L

L Thammy

Member
Aeana said:
Enix wanted to merge with Square because of their low success in western markets, and the fact that they had little control over the IPs they published. So, out of the merger, they got a more reliable revenue and a foothold in the west. And of course, Square got access to Enix's money.
Click to expand...

Ah, thank you. That makes sense.

Also:

Robert Jerauld said:
You can’t forget the lesser known titles that were really packed with amazing gameplay – games like E.V.O., Brain Lord
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Robert Jerauld said:
Illusion of Gaia – ... I didn’t have much to work with for a story at the time, so I literally sat down and wrote the entire thing in English. Much of the lines in that game from both the main character and his companions were heavily influenced by my own experience with personal relationships. I wanted the story to feel natural, the characters to resonate with people, to feel familiar.
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I like this guy.
 
A

AmyS

Member
I would have bought Dragon Quest VI localized as Dragon Warrior V for SNES without a second thought, based on EGM's coverage in late '94 of the Japanese version, which was still a ways off from release at that time.

HKOpyp6.jpg
 
M

Man God

Non-Canon Member
As much as I love it DQ V would have died a dog's death released anytime after the immediate US launch period. It's a worse looking game than FF II and that one barely looked up to muster for the 16bit generation.

VI meanwhile would have done well alongside Secret of Mana/FF III/Chrono Trigger.
 
SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Aeana said:
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Pe2ZLaU.jpg
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7qBeP9V.jpg



One of the most beautiful games on SNES, in my opinion, and it stands right up there with its peers. I feel like it would've done pretty well for an RPG on SNES.
Click to expand...
I... almost want to say this looks more appealing than the DS version.
 
A

Aeana

Member
Man God said:
As much as I love it DQ V would have died a dog's death released anytime after the immediate US launch period. It's a worse looking game than FF II and that one barely looked up to muster for the 16bit generation.

VI meanwhile would have done well alongside Secret of Mana/FF III/Chrono Trigger.
Click to expand...

I don't know about it being a worse looking game than FF2 US. They both look like they came from the same era, and of course they did. They both look like higher color NES games.

SolVanderlyn said:
I... almost want to say this looks more appealing than the DS version.
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Well, it does. It also sounds much better than the DS version.
 
P

pje122

Member
Aeana said:
One of the most beautiful games on SNES, in my opinion, and it stands right up there with its peers. I feel like it would've done pretty well for an RPG on SNES.
Click to expand...
If I never played DQ6 before should I play this version over the DS one?
 
A

Aeana

Member
pje122 said:
If I never played DQ6 before should I play this version over the DS one?
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I very greatly prefer the SNES version over the DS one, although the fan translation for the SNES version isn't 100% complete. You'd get some gibberish for some NPC dialog. But it's completable, at least.
 
P

pje122

Member
Aeana said:
I very greatly prefer the SNES version over the DS one, although the fan translation for the SNES version isn't 100% complete. You'd get some gibberish for some NPC dialog. But it's completable, at least.
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Can you elaborate on why? And do you feel the same way about DQ5? I played DQ4 a few years ago on DS and am getting ready to jump into 5 and 6.
 
H

HellBlazer

Member
Aeana said:
It's interesting that this same person is also responsible for The 7th Saga being what it is, or at least partially.



The 7th Saga is dramatically more difficult in stupid ways than the Japanese version. Very sad that it ended up that way, since I think people may have responded a bit better to the game if they got the version that Japan got.
Click to expand...

Huh... so he's the one who made it a ridiculous grind-fest?
 
S

sörine

Banned
So sad that Enix of America died when it did. I believe they had also announced Mystic Ark for US release as The 7th Saga II and there were old rumors they'd also planned localizations of Tenchi Sozo (which Europe got as Terranigma), Tactics Ogre and Torneko no Daibouken.

Square USA also had releases planned for Seiken Densetsu 3 and Romancing SaGa 3 before they died around the same time. The latter was going to be rebranded as FFIV or something crazy. So many great late SFC JRPGs that we just missed out on.
 
H

hydragonwarrior

Member
AmyS said:
I would have bought Dragon Quest VI localized as Dragon Warrior V for SNES without a second thought, based on EGM's coverage in late '94 of the Japanese version, which was still a ways off from release at that time.

BuFa8vu.jpg
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Omg that EGM pic... the nostalgia feels...
 
T

Tiktaalik

Member
I recall at the time Nintendo Power would often write about games in Japan, and I recall they did a really big piece on DQ6. It may have been over two pages. As JRPGs were seemingly really popular (at least among my friends) it seemed to me that DQ6 was a lock for a release. It seemed odd to me later that despite all the attention the game got in Nintendo Power it never materialized.

I wonder if it was just a coincidence that Nintendo Power did a big feature on the game, or were they under the impression that it was being localized and brought over soon?
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
sörine;139140334 said:
Square USA also had releases planned for Seiken Densetsu 3 and Romancing SaGa 3 before they died around the same time. The latter was going to be rebranded as FFIV or something crazy. So many great late SFC JRPGs that we just missed out on.
Click to expand...
I don't remember hearing about those two, but Final Fantasy V was being considered to release AFTER VI/III.

It was (tentatively) going to be called Final Fantasy Extreme to avoid confusion because the downgrade in graphics with a numerical title.
 
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